All Features articles – Page 658
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Features
Welcome to the lion's den
The Arbitration Act means that legally unqualified arbitrators have to tackle difficult issues of law and, as a case decided in July shows, they may have to do it at a disadvantage.
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Features
Vive la différence?
Britain is noted for being rather detached from the rest of the EU, and our legal system is no exception. Take public procurement cases – a major source of income for them; a foreign language to us, despite Harmon.
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Features
Welcome to the future
Forget trad office blocks and out-of-town shopping centres. E-commerce is revolutionising the way we live and work. In five years’ time, you may be building or working in one of these multipurpose structures – it’s a high-rise combining offices, homes, a hotel, leisure facilities and shops.
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Features
Have they got news for you?
Do you sincerely need a management consultant? Laing thought so after its Cardiff disaster, and the result was a startling redesign of its business. What could one do for you
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Features
Rush to judgment
The effects of the Arbitration and Construction acts, together with the outcomes of recent test cases, have put expediency before justice, and may increase legal risk to the point where firms take drastic action.
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Features
Medicine man
Keith Airey left the world of cold and flu relief to become head of procurement at the new-look Laing. He has big plans to overhaul its buying policy and boost profit margins – and his ambition does not end there.
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Features
Pest practice
Rats and mice. They squeeze through 9 mm holes, scuttle behind skirting boards and shin up drainpipes, and the damage they do is usually uninsurable. What's more, modern building construction may be making cosy homes for them. How can you keep them out?
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Features
Staging an adjudication
The scene is set for the adjudication : on one side is Bodgit, the allegedly incompetent builder; on the other is the client, accused of withholding payment. Between them resides Justice. So, what s the verdict?
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Features
Legal advice from the client
The rules on costs introduced by Lord Woolf s Civil Procedure Rules mean that there are some aspects of the law in which the client may find itself advising its lawyers.
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Features
Appointments
Contractor Howard Tinkler has been promoted to regional building services manager for Carillion in the Midlands. Housebuilders Willmott Dixon has appointed Wendy Churchill-Coleman company secretary. Steve Watt has been appointed chairman and managing director of Persimmon City Developments. Andrew McPhillips has joined Crest Homes South East ...
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Features
Housewives' choice
The JCT deserves a pat on the back for its new domestic works contract. It s eight pages long, easy to use and could save a lot of trouble when Mrs Bingham hires a contractor to build an extension.
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Features
Welcome to total design
The outline of a new world of integrated specification, design and construction is becoming visible. Each stage in the process will be integrated with every other and it will speak your language.
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Features
Is it e-legal?
More and more major clients are using electronic data exchange to manage project information. This is efficient, but unless firms are alert to the dangers, it can increase their legal risk.
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Features
Why Harmon won at Portcullis House
A buy British policy, bullying by the construction manager and misconduct by an official seals victory for cladding contractor Harmon and raises questions over best-value procurement.
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Features
Ivory towers
Birmingham city planners are doing their best to shrug off the city's "concrete jungle" tag. But, for Aston University's new student residences, architect Feilden Clegg has offered an upmarket take on the tower block.
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Features
Just the job
WSP's sustainability director Peter Sharratt tells Elaine Knutt what he does, and why it doesn't give him much time to go sailing.
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Features
Keith Miller
Privately owned Miller Group came to public notice with a protracted battle to buy Cala. That bid failed but the firm has a lot of hungry money. So how did a privately owned, family firm come by all that cash?
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Features
If Laing lost, who wins?
Last week Laing joined the queue of major contractors opting out of competitive tendering, effectively giving £400m to its rivals. So, who is going to snap up all that extra turnover?
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Features
Is Woolf working?
However fine the Woolf reforms sound in theory, the fact is that a third of parties have abandoned the courts since they were introduced. This would appear to be because, in practice, Woolf is making justice a lottery.